Guides: Africana Studies: Explore Primary Sources

Americas

African American History Online (Library of Congress)
Over 400 years of the African American experience is documented through primary source materials at the Library of Congress.

American Antiquarian Society [AAS] Historical Periodicals Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Access to newspapers, bulletins, reports, and other periodicals from the United States, providing coverage from 1691-1877.

Black Freedom Struggles Primary Source collection
This collection includes historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more from specific time periods in U.S. history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom.
Black History resources page (NARA)
Online resources from the National Archives and other government and education sites relating to African American history, including digital archives, digitized papers, oral histories, speeches, newspapers, and more.
Black Past
This resource contains three main areas: African American History, African American History in the West, and Global African History. Under each of those headings you will find a vast array of resources, including encyclopedia entries, full text primary documents, major speeches, and historical timelines.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
This collection chronicles the transformative decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s through the lens of an independent alternative press. Independent Voices provides access to over 1,000 titles of publications from feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinos, gays, lesbians and more.

Navigating the Green Book
The Green Book was a travel guide published between 1936 and 1966 that listed hotels, restaurants, bars, gas stations, etc. where black travelers would be welcome. NYPL Labs is in the process of extracting the data from the Green Books themselves and welcomes you to explore its contents in new ways.
Samuel J. May Antislavery Collection
Numbering over 10,000 titles, May's pamphlets and leaflets document the anti-slavery struggle at the local, regional, and national levels.
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Much of the May Anti-Slavery Collection was considered ephemeral or fugitive, and today many of these pamphlets are scarce. Sermons, position papers, offprints, local Anti-Slavery Society newsletters, poetry anthologies, freedmen's testimonies, broadsides, and Anti-Slavery Fair keepsakes all document the social and political implications of the abolitionist movement.
Slave Stories
Tales of American slaves written in their own words. Open source project featuring public-domain slave narratives in easily accessible ebook form.

AFRO Archives
Digitized collection of black newspapers, including Afro-American National Edition, Afro-American Ledger, Baltimore Afro-American, and Washington Afro-American.

Chicago Defender (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A Chicago-based weekly newspaper, serving a primarily African-American audience. This collection covers issues published from 1910-1975.
Early American Newspapers (Readex) This link opens in a new window
More than 290 significant 18th- and 19th-century newspapers from every region of the United States. This collection focuses on the period between 1820 and 1860, when the number of American newspapers rose dramatically. Part of the Readex America's Historical Newspapers collection.
New York Times, Historical plus Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: the New York Times provides the full image of articles published in the New York Times from its first issue in 1851. It is searchable by keyword, author, article title, and first paragraph (abstract). You can browse issues by clicking Publications at the top of the screen. It includes illustrations and advertisements. The title changed from the New York Daily Times to the New York Times in 1857.

African Online Digital Library
The African Online Digital Library (AODL) is a portal to multimedia collections about Africa. MATRIX, working in cooperation with the African Studies Center at Michigan State University, is partnering with universities and cultural heritage organizations in Africa to build this resource.
Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora
Links to hundreds of archives, research centers, bibliographies and more. Organized geographically. (Archived version of page hosted by Internet Archives)
Black Past
This resource contains three main areas: African American History, African American History in the West, and Global African History. Under each of those headings you will find a vast array of resources, including encyclopedia entries, full text primary documents, major speeches, and historical timelines.